Secaucus NJ schools decide to arm all unarmed security officers
Secaucus NJ Feb 27 2018 Secaucus announced on Friday the town will assign police officers to patrol the district’s schools while it provides firearms training to the schools’ currently unarmed security guards.
The announcement came nine days after a school massacre in Parkland, Florida left 17 dead, and in the wake of security scares at schools in Nutley and Bayonne. The Florida killings led President Trump to suggest arming teachers to avoid future massacres.
Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli told The Jersey Journal the town will pay between $500 and $900 a day for each officer assigned to patrol buildings. The 2,100-student district has four schools and a preschool.
The district’s 15 security guards are all retired police officers and will undergo psychological evaluations and other testing so they can possess firearms inside schools, Gonnelli said. He estimates the process will take about two or three weeks. While costly for the town, Gonnelli said town and school officials agreed having armed guards “had to happen.”
“In this day and age, we need to do something,” he said.
School officials did not return a request for comment. The town’s police department directed questions to the mayor’s office.
Secaucus’ school district reported seven instances of violence in the 2015-16 school year, up from four the year before, and zero incidents of weapons possession both years, according to a report submitted by the state Department of Education.
Hudson County school and law enforcement officials are panning Trump’s suggestion that teachers start packing heat. Robert Zywicki, Weehawken’s schools superintendent, called the idea “ridiculous.”
“Teachers are not law enforcement officers,” Zywicki said. “Their only concern should be educating and caring for the kids. This shouldn’t even be on their radar.”
Trump first suggested arming teachers following the Feb. 14 massacre at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. On Thursday, he said teachers could get “a little bit of a bonus” plus firearms training and turn schools into a “hardened target.”
Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante said police officers get extensive training on using firearms that he worries teachers wouldn’t receive. Hoboken has four full-time police officers assigned to its high school, in addition to the district’s unarmed security personnel.
“We do not want schools to become the O.K. Corral,” he said. “We want to try to prevent shooters from getting into the school.”
It’s no surprise that liberal Hudson County opposes a Trump idea. In November 2016, just 23 percent of voters here supported Trump, while 74 percent voted for Hillary Clinton. In New Jersey, Clinton’s share of the vote in Hudson was second only to her share in Essex County.
Jersey City’s 29,000-student district has 15 full-time cops assigned to schools. Four travel among elementary schools and the others are posted at high schools. Another eight off-duty cops patrol outside high schools during lunch.
“We know that at this moment, after the horrific events in Florida, people feel vulnerable, even helpless,” Jersey City schools spokeswoman Maryann Dickar said. “However, we do not believe that arming teachers will solve the issues of gun violence. We support the solutions presented by students across the country and in Jersey City, that we need better and saner gun laws, not more guns.”
NJ.com
